New IE Articles

Effectiveness of Export Support Programs: Impact on the Relational Capital and International Performance of Early Internationalizing Small Businesses

Alexis Catanzaro, Karim Messeghem, Sylvie Sammut

This article evaluates the impact of public export support programs on the internationalization of early internationalizing small businesses. We build and test a conceptual model of the link between export support services and early internationalizing firms’ relational capital and international performance in terms of both economic international performance and the number of foreign markets in which they are present. The results show that financial support is effective in enhancing firm performance only in terms of the number of foreign markets but not in terms of economic performance, that informational support is effective through its influence on relational capital, and that operational support is not. Our findings contrast with those of previous studies on firms that internationalize through stages and suggest that new export support services adapted to early internationalizing firms are needed.

Can sport mega events (SMEs) incite entrepreneurial rent-making in nations that host them? The manuscript investigates this question using frameworks in sport event leverage and sport-based entrepreneurship as a foundation. Results from a sample of N=2259 observations from 1970 to 2017 tied to 156 nations and 59 SMEs produced two takeaways. First, hosting a sport mega event (SME) was associated with increases in entrepreneurial rents for firms in developed host nations. Second, that relationship did not exist for the subsample classified as ‘developing’ nations. The first result implies that developed nations can use SMEs to stimulate entrepreneurialism– a finding that solidifies sport-based entrepreneurship within the sport management landscape and bolsters frameworks of SME leverage. The second finding reinforces that there is no documentable upside to hosting a SME for developing nations – at least under the current approach. Managerial implications are outlined for developing and developed host nations.

Journal of International Entrepreneurship — Volume 17, Issue 3

Containing seven original articles, a Special Issue on Looking Inside Born Globals and International New Ventures: Strategic Orientations for International Growth is available here.